Well, it’s much nicer talking about school puddings, but as Dick and Dom want to bitch again, I’m happy to offer a solution.
As the job description for the Soviet was never made clear (I think I may have mentioned that) all @pap has to do is agree that @tokyo-saint is now a fully elected member of the Soviet and then make it so that the Soviet has no power anyway. That way everyone is happy. The only power I remember being mentioned anyway was discussing “the future direction of the board” which is as vague as it is pointless. So count up the votes, offer the roles out and then let’s all get back to normal.
i remember being at primary school and our teacher brought in something called an avocado. None of us had seen one or knew what it was. She insisted that we were going to grow one from a pip/stone. I remember her sticking some sticks into it or something and then we waited. Can’t remember if it grew. I tried one a couple of years back and found it to be disgusting shit.
This is pretty much what I am expecting Fats. Dick kept it open so he had an escape route. He is just asking me to do some electioneering now the election is over. Soon we will be intalled as a powerless puppet government. Although we have been promised “great power” for which we need “great responsibility” for this “high office”. I can’t wait to get started.
You’re going to be expected to work to participate in and deliver outcomes by consensus, seven other people, including me.
I appreciate that we’ve all had an excellent laugh on the Soviet Nominations thread, and you provided some of the best content on that thread.
In the real world, people will expect their representatives to want the site to proceed positively, and have its best interests at heart.
There are democratic levers we can pull, such as a further round of voting and an aggregate count, that could sort any question of impropriety. If folk are incensed at the proposition they can pile on the votes as they did before.
Do you have the best interests of the site at heart?
I genuinely think that’s a fair question in context.
The site is wide but in general, yes. Somewhere I spend a lot of time on, I want to be “the best”. That might not be the same as your vision but let’s face it, you have driven more people away from the site then anyone. True or not?
Do I have the diversity is happening or not or just a bit thread as heart - no. Do I have your best interest at heart - no. Do I like a lot of posters and have a laugh on threads - yes. I seem to enjoy it more than you, that is for sure. Anyway, I have done a bit of electioneering for you but I don’t care what you do. I fully expect you to do as fats said so all the talk of big decisions and “best interests at heart” is just bullshit.
I just want to be the best I can and I hope this forum can make me a better person. If that means becoming Barry, then I welcome that. Making decisions with 7 people on a forum of about 20 people is a big ask. I just hope I am up to the job. Decisions like, should we have a motoring forum for the perverts are tough but I will give it my best shot.
How do you see that working then? What’s going to be the point if you’re seemingly going to row with me every time we meet?
There’s a good reason a lot of the detail hasn’t been made public. We have some excellent ideas for widening the appeal of this place, developing new functionality and more. Many of these proposals have huge implications for the site, big decision points about how we proceed. The Soviet and wider ownership structure is there to work a lot of the kinks out before they go to the forum at large, expand the range of content we’re able to produce.
I have no problem with dissent. @rallyboy and I have been feuding for a year and yet he was an immediate choice for co-owner, partially for that reason but mostly because I know he wants the site to do well. We’ve two Brexiters, two Remainers. When the Soviet is formed, I’d hope we still have a good balance.
I don’t see how it’s going to work if you’re going to make it your life’s mission to disagree with me, particularly as I’m the chap that is going to be technically implementing the changes.
We’d like to get shit done. We’d even like to get shit sold. That’s not going to happen if you and I are constantly at loggerheads.
Get over it please, @tokyo-saint . It’ll never work otherwise.
Sounds like that Fatso doesn’t it? Was it an election or an interview? Will everyone elected have to go through the same process or have I been especially selected? Will the same rule apply for Pap? Will I actually have to like Pap or will put up with be enough? are you looking for a yes man?
Last question. Apart from being voted in by the users of the forum, attending some random pub of your choosing, roughly how many more hoops will I have to jump through?
I just like that quote, it wasn’t meant to be a comment on the interview style*. It’s my quote of the day and I will be using it regularly on here and in real life.
* although being honest I was probably being a bit mischievous putting it here
Be fair, @tokyo-saint . We’ve not met, all I have to go on is our electronic exchanges. I’ve seen your manifestos on the Soviet thread, but they’re really not compatible with what the Soviet is going to be there for.
They’re not mod positions. They’re group chats on the internet, the occasional meetup, almost always structured around a home game. It is not a big ask. Plenty of us do it as a matter of home game course. Much of the camaraderie in the forum is built around it.
Arnold J Rimmer once famously said in a speech “I have come to regard you all as people I have met.”
It’s a big distinction on Sotonians, and while it’s not the be-all and end-all, I’ve seen feuds fizzle in seconds because of that distinction. It’s not a big ask.
It’s really easy to destroy good things. It’s really not so easy to build good things.
Today was a shit day for me on here. (Bletch puts the back of his left hand to his forehead and swoonily flutters eyelashes).
I don’t give a shit if any of you give a shit about that or not. That’s what I signed up for.
But there is a tone that I’d like to see on here and many of you came here to help create that tone, and many of you were setting out to destroy that today - in the name of shits and giggles.
I don’t think anyone consciously set out to ruin the forum on THAT thread. I honestly think that for some it was simply fun to bait others - to see what reaction they could get, without a thought to the consequence.
I’d (PERSONALLY) oppose the election of anyone that sees shits and giggles and baiting members above the long-term future of a quirky little forum for a mid-table football team.
I am concerned enough that I think we really do need some more hoops for prospective Soviet members to jump through.
Something that would assure that membership of the full-term integrity of the people they voted for.
Remember that I voted for @tokyo-saint here, so that tells you I’m not singling him out and tells you what I’d like to see happen with him.
I had a boss once who brought together management teams that would be at each other’s throats most of the time. When I asked him about it, he said that he believed that better decisions get made by teams in moderate conflict.
I agree - as long as everyone is thinking about the greater good, which in our case is the long-term interests of the membership.
If this an audition for a council rebuttal, @tokyo-saint , it illustrates my point. There is no attempt at reasonable. It’s all about confrontation and obstruction. I’d love to see all Soviet members make a meetup, but we can make allowances. We’ve had peeps who live on different continents turn up at least once, sometimes more.
We’ve got a regular home drinking crowd, a smaller but active London set that watch games together up there, and we do away games together. I appreciate that not everyone gets involved, but those that do meet up form a huge part of the core of this site. It’s the reason we’re not ripping each other to bits all the time, and perhaps the reason why some of the site’s most strident critics are people we’ve never met.
Involved or not, it’s a big part of Sotonians culture, drives a huge part of the continuing goodwill and reminds us all that we’re not just twats on the end of a keyboard. I reiterate, it’s not a big ask.
